Jason Axelrod

With the official launch of the SOULCALIBUR Lost Swords website yesterday, Namco-Bandai has also released a whole bunch of character trailers featuring Mitsurugi, Siegfried and Sophitia. These videos showcase each of the three beta-test characters and their movesets in the upcoming free-to-play single-player-only title.

As a reminder, these is a Japan only beta-test (re: demo) coming out on PSN tomorrow. If you want to try the game out before it arrives in America, it would be very easy to create a Japanese PSN account and download it. Thankfully, @Party Wolf put together a small video showing those who haven't already created a PSN account years ago for previous Japan-only Soulcalibur content.

Namco-Bandai recently announced an upcoming domestic beta test for Soulcalibur Lost Swords; which is scheduled to be released sometime by the end of the year. In case you forgot, Lost Swords is a single-player only fighting game; so chances are you may not be interested in this little title. However, the game will be free on PSN when it launches soon.

The beta test will be available between November 14 to 18. In the beta test, players will be able to test out a small portion of "Quest Mode" with Sophitia, Siegfried and Mitsurugi. In addition, players will have access to character creation and the shop. In order to try out the beta, you will simply need to download the 4gb trial when it becomes available on the Playstation Network. More information after the break [...]

UPDATE: Namco-Bandai has informed us that this "domestic" beta test is for Japan only. A Japanese PSN account will be required to download the beta. There are no plans to bring the beta test to other territories.

So after the long wait, Namco-Bandai has finally announced the release date of Soulcalibur 2 HD Online! We've been wondering for months now, since the game was announced back in July; but we finally know it will be coming out on November 20... in Europe. Will the US release date match it? Who knows. This information was not announced on any press releases, or given to any news outlets; so the release date may have been released prematurely.

In addition to the release date, the full Achievement/Trophy list has been found on the Xbox Live servers and can be viewed here. Pretty basic stuff... No word on the price yet.

*UPDATE* Namco's Soulcalibur Facebook page officially confirms the release date as "Worldwide".

The media library we have here at 8WAYRUN started with the best of intentions. It was supposed to be a place where users could find high quality and relevant videos to their interests. And at first, that's what it was; it housed tournament videos, skill projects and more...

However, since then, technology has changed. The ability to record and stream video is open to pretty much anyone. Buy a Live Gamer Portable for relatively cheap and you can get started in no time! Because of this, suddenly everyone is producing video and adding it to the media library, instead of just the high profile tournament organizers.

Yesterday, the Soulcalibur community, and the FGC lost one of their own. Larry "ShinBlanka" Dixon recently reported on Facebook that WingZero died of natural causes early yesterday morning; he was 27. WingZero has been a member of the Atlanta Fighting Game Community for many years; but he exploded onto the zeitgeist of the Soulcalibur community when he got second place at NEC in 2005.

Larry "ShinBlank" Dixon said:

The FGC is in mourning of a great player and even better person, as Richard Warren “WingZero” has passed away today due to natural causes. He was a part of the Elite Tekken and Soul Calibur crew in Atlanta (East Point Dojo/crib), and was for years known as the best Nina (Tekken 4, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken 6, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2) in America as well as one of the top Soul Calibur players in the world.

Richard was such a humble person, to be so good at his craft, and he was willing to help anyone that was willing to learn the games he mastered. He good nature and positive outlook on gaming was a breath of fresh air. His presence as a gamer, but more importantly as a person, will be missed in the Georgia FGC. A moment of silence for my dude Richard Warren AKA “WingZero”. God bless your family as our thoughts and prayers will be with you and those you love. We’ll see you in that East Point dojo in the sky!

RIP homie!

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WingZero has since placed at many tournaments, including Final Round and multiple different Major League Gaming events. Its always sad when the FGC loses a life; even more tragic when they are so young. Feel free to leave your condolences and share your stories with those he left behind.

So if you guys remember, back in July, Namco-Bandai registered a trademark for "Soulcalibur: Lost Swords". A week later, they wrapped up their Comic-con panel, and revealed absolutely nothing about the upcoming title. Well as of this week, the title has been officially revealed in Weekly Famitsu.

According to Gematsu, Soulcalibur: Lost Swords will be a Playstation 3 exclusive free-to-play game in the vein of Tekken Revolution. If its similar to their other F2P titles, the game will be "time-limited" where players must purchase tokens in order to continue playing the game beyond its initial demo hours. Not much more is known about the title, but it will most likely be a slightly modified version of Soulcalibur V.

So we already know that Soulcalibur 2 will be coming to PSN and XBL in a few months; but we never knew the state of the guest characters from that series. On the Playstation 2, we had Heihachi, on the Xbox we had Spawn; and both consoles had Necrid. Would the same be for PSN and XBL? Would these characters remain as console exclusives?

Well according to a report from Siliconera, both characters will be available on both versions! This begs the quesiton, how will this affect tournaments? In the past, they were banned because they were console-exclusives; but now that exclusivity is gone. Since both characters are now available to everybody, should be allow them? Necrid too? Sadly, Link from the Gamecube version of the game remains absent from this downloadable release.